TRAVERSE CITY, MI – Tomas Tatar’s agent Ritch Winter is a guy who tends to play it close to the vest when it comes to contract talks. Reached recently by The Athletic to talk about the Red Wings forward’s next deal, he politely declined and then laughed, suggesting that we should know better than to even try.

It’s how he operates.

So when a translation of a Tatar interview back home in Slovakia was done by the blog Kukla’s Korner, it provided the first public hint as to what’s on the line in the next couple weeks before Tatar’s arbitration case on July 20.

Tatar made it clear that he wants no part of arbitration. He also suggested that, if it gets to that point, it would likely be the last contract he negotiates with the Red Wings.

“It’s just a mandatory contract,” Tatar said, after translation. “Unless I agree with Detroit, I’ll go to the court, where they’ll give me a year’s contract. That would probably be my last...